


Your New Best (Worst) Friend

by orphan_account



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Jealousy, Manipulation, Obsession, Other tags will be added as the story progresses, Possessive Behavior, Steven just wants to help, Unhealthy Relationships, minor yandere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22836835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Steven gets the idea to try to befriend Spinel
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe, Spinel/Steven Universe, it's one sided at first but then it becomes mutual
Comments: 1
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so the first three chapters are more to set up the story, the story doesn't really change a whole lot from canon until the very end of Chapter 3; I'll put a note at the beginning of chapter 4 explaining the differences.
> 
> Also, I had to rewrite Drift Away into not a song and it's awful, so, just a warning.

Steven entered the dome at the top of his house to find Spinel sitting on her knees on the warp pad in the dome. "Spinel?" he called to her. He approached her. "What's wrong?"

She turned around to face him, frowning, tears streaming down her face. Steven gasped, and then Spinel answered his question. "I just started getting these feelings flooding back to me…"

"That's… that's good!" Steven walked behind Spinel, stepping onto the warp pad with her. "I need you to remember! If you don't, something really bad will happen to me and my home! Please… think! Do you remember the garden?"

Spinel's eyes widened. "The garden…?"

"Is anything coming back to you?"

Spinel smiled, but then it quickly turned into a frown. "NO!"

Spinel slammed on the warp pad, while simultaneously activating it.

"Spinel, where are we going?!" Steven asked.

"Back… to where I never left…"

When they arrived, they were in some kind of abandoned-looking area. There was dead grass in patches everywhere, dry vines on crumbling pillars, and a broken fountain with algae all around the bottom of it.

Spinel looked around until something caught her eye and she gasped and ran off.

"Spinel!" Steven called, following her.

When he caught up to her, he was planning on asking what this place was, but Spinel was ahead of him, telling him, "This was our garden. A special world built just for Pink and I." Spinel smiled. "On Homeworld, Pink was so lonely and sad, but not here! Here, we would play for hours! Every day was so much fun!" Then she frowned. "At least… that's what I thought…"

"Did something happen?"

"Pink wanted a colony more than anything. One day, her wish came true! Blue and Yellow gave Pink her very own planet: Earth! I was so excited! A brand new place to play!"

But then… "So… why didn't you go with her?"

Spinel looked down. "When… when she got her colony, she said she had a game for me to play. She told me to stand very still until she came back. I just knew the game would be so much fun! She smiled at me. One of my favorite things back then; her smile and her laughter. I was happy to do whatever she wanted me to do. Even as she left, even as she warped away, I was just happily watching her drift away. I waited. And waited. I was happy, because… I was playing a game with Pink! She seemed excited about the game, so I was too! But years… centuries… went by… and nothing… I… I wondered if it was my fault. Did I do something wrong? I even wondered if Pink had… but I knew she would never abandon me, because I knew she loved our games. I knew… I was  _ so sure _ I just had to wait and one day she'd be back again. Until you shared your message. She…" Spinel started choking back tears. "She… abandoned me… And she made  _ new _ friends. Without me. She doesn't even exist now, and you're all that's left of her. Something inside me broke. She abandoned me. She made me stay here for 6000 years… for nothing. She didn't even care about me." Spinel's form changed back to how it was when she first showed up on Earth. "She  _ abandoned me _ ."

Then she glared at him.

Steven gave an awkward smile. "Spinel… you've… you've got your memories back! I can't believe Mom did that to you!" He frowned. "Actually… I can totally believe it." He approached her and then reached to put his hand on her shoulder. "You're not the only one she hurt."

Suddenly Spinel shouted and pushed Steven to the ground, and then leaned over him. "Yeah, you must know all about her life without me! Rub it in why don't ya!" She held up her fist to punch him.

Steven attempted to summon his shield, failing every time. "No! It's not like that! You deserve a better friend!"

Spinel glared at him, before yelling and smashing the communicator right behind her. Then she fell to the ground, her arms stretched and in a pile in front of her.

"Spinel… come back and save the Earth with me! You can start over there!" He took a breath. "I can help you make some new friends."

Spinel turned around to look at him. "Re-really?"

Steven held out his hand and smiled at her. "Really."

Spinel smiled, following Steven back to the warp pad, holding his hand the whole way.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spinel helps Steven with the injector

Steven and Spinel headed for the living room of the house. "Guys! Guess who's back!" Steven exclaimed. Then he turned to Spinel. "Come on down!"

"Won't they all be… not exactly incredibly  _ thrilled _ … to see me… like this?"

"We just have to talk to them."

Spinel agreed to come down, and Steven announced her with a "Ta-da!"

Pearl was the first Crystal Gem to react, yelling "W-W-W-WHAT?!?"

Then she and Amethyst both summoned their weapons, while Garnet, still having amnesia and not remembering what Spinel did, simply asked, "Oh, Spinel! Did you change your hair?"

Steven held out his hands defensively, while Spinel shrunk down behind him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Steven said. "Spinel got her memories back, but she's not gonna hurt us. Everything's chill."

A pink portal opened, and out came Lion with Connie on his back, holding her sword. Lion slid across the floor, and Connie jumped off, landing between Garnet and Pearl. "I'm here! Where's the fight?!"

"Don't fight! Everything's chill!"

Just then, Greg left the bathroom, and everyone turned to him. He saw all the weapons and said "Alright, alright! I'll wash my hands!" Then he went back inside the bathroom.

Steven sighed. "Okay." He turned to Spinel. "Spinel, can I ask you a favor?"

Spinel smiled. "Are you kidding? Anything!"

* * *

Back by the injector, Peridot was using her tablet to check the status on it. It showed a diagram of the injector, along with a slowly falling level of pink inside, until it reached a certain point at which the tablet beeped and a pink exclamation point flashed on the screen.

"That sounds bad," Lapis said.

"That  _ looks _ bad," Bismuth said.

"That  _ is _ bad!" Peridot explained. "We're hitting critical mass!"

"Then I guess we're just in time," Steven said. He, along with everyone else at the beach house (besides Greg) had just reached the hill.

Peridot, Bismuth, and Lapis all flinched, then Peridot shook her head before asking, "Steven! What's the status on Spinel!?"

"She's back. And she's here to help."

Spinel nodded before approaching her injector, turning her pinky finger into a horn and blowing into it, causing the injector to fly out of the Earth's crust, and to retract its legs and drill.

Everyone cheered, and then Connie said, "Okay, can someone fill me in?"

Steven sighed. "Thanks, Spinel." He then held out his hand and she took it.

"Aww, gee. What are friends for?"

"Okay. We've almost cleaned up this mess. Now, all we need are Garnet's memories and my powers, and we can get back to living happily ever after." Steven began walking back to the other Crystal Gems. "What could work for Garnet? Something about fusion… something about love…"

"What about me…?"

Steven turned to Spinel. "Huh?"

"Is that all you needed me for? To turn off my injector?"

"No! Well- sort of. But not-"

"Oh! But what now? I did what you wanted, that's it?"

Oh. "Spinel… of course not." Steven approached her. "I made a promise. And I'm going to keep it. I'll help you make some new friends."

"But… none of them are gonna wanna be friends with me… after everything I did…"

"Spinel-"

"I'm the source of all your problems! All  _ their _ problems!"

Steven held out his hand. "Spinel, I don't hate you." He smiled. "How would you like to be friends with  _ me _ ?"

Spinel looked at him as if to see if he was serious. The smile on his face seemed so genuine. She took his hand, and then pulled him into a hug, a normal one without stretching her arms around him, which he reciprocated.

"I'll take that as a 'yes,'" Steven said.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this chapter is still a rewrite of the stuff that happened in the movie, but Spinel stays on Earth with Steven

They cleaned up (and managed to get Garnet's memories back pretty quickly), but partway through the cleanup, a ship arrived on Earth; White, Yellow, and Blue's ships combined into one robot, minus the legs. They introduced themselves, and then asked if they were interrupting. Steven said that they were, but didn't want to yell a whole explanation.

A giant white bubble came out of White's ship's forehead, and landed in front of Steven, revealing White, Yellow, and Blue. "Yellow? Blue? White? What are you all doing here?" Steven asked.

"Well, Steven," Yellow said, "we were all talking, and- I'm sorry, but what is that smell?"

"I don't smell anything."

"Ugh. That's cause you live here."

"Anyway," Blue continued, "we were talking and we decided-"

"This is taking too long!" White interrupted, pushing in front of the other two, and then crouching, probably the closest she could get to Steven's height (or any human or non-diamond non-fusion gem's height for that matter) without actually laying down. "Steven! We've come to Earth to live with you!" She pointed at Steven.

"What?" Steven said. "My house isn't big enough for all of us!"

"Oh, well, I'm sure we could make do with the rest of the space your planet provi- who's that behind you?"

"Huh? Oh, that's Spinel." She was hiding behind him… for some reason… "Spinel, you know the diamonds, right?"

"Yeah, but they've never seen me like this…" Spinel said.

Steven stepped to the side. "Blue, Yellow, White, this is Spinel!"

Spinel quickly saluted them, stretching her arms to form three gem salutes at once. "My Diamonds!"

White gasped, and Yellow said "Pink's little playmate?"

"One of Pink's lost treasures!" Blue added.

"Mom left her on a floating garden in space," Steven explained.

"You poor thing!"

"Ah, it was only 6000 years! I could do that," Spinel did a handstand, "standing on my head!" She clapped her shoes together, causing them to squeak.

Yellow burst into laughter. "Only 6000 years! It's true! That's nothing! And that goofy handstand!" She wiped a tear of laughter from her eye. "I like this gem."

"She's adorable," Blue said, "and so much like Pink."

"Spinel, I-" White cleared her throat. "Steven, since the Earth is so disgusting, we'll just take Spinel back to Homeworld with us, and you can stay here."

"I'd rather stay with Steven," Spinel said.

The diamonds frowned, and then White Diamond said, "If that's what you must do then I guess we'll just go back to Homeworld, where it's so boooring!" She looked back as if to see if either Steven or Spinel went after her. "I just wish there was someone who-"

"White, she made her decision," Blue said, "and we should let her choose what she feels will make her the happiest."

White's face turned a pale pink. "Of course. I wasn't arguing. Let's get back on the ship."

The other diamonds followed White back on to the ship, and Steven and Spinel watched the ship fly into space.

"Do you… think I made the wrong decision?" Spinel asked Steven.

"I mean, do you feel happy right here?"

Spinel hugged Steven. "Yeah."

Steven hugged Spinel back. "Then no. You made the right one."


End file.
